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Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, newly hatched sea turtles emerged on a Gabonese beach to embark on the treacherous 10-meter (33-foot) scramble across the sand to the ocean. <\/p>\n
“The survival rate for turtles is one in 1,000,” Francois Boussamba, a Gabonese turtle expert and head of the NGO Aventures Sans Frontieres (Adventures Without Borders), told AFP, scouring for nests. <\/p>\n
Conservationists from NGOs and the national parks agency patrol Gabon’s beaches daily during the nesting season to protect the turtles’ nests. <\/p>\n
Those under threat are moved to a hatchery, a fenced enclosure near the sea, where the eggs are kept safe until they are ready to hatch. <\/p>\n
On Pongara National Park’s white sandy beaches, about 30 minutes by boat from the capital Libreville, conditions are optimal for nesting: wild coastline, a favorable equatorial climate and an open ocean beach with gentle slopes, ideal for the females. <\/p>\n
But dangers lurk. Nests are threatened by coastal erosion due to encroaching sea levels, or myriad predators such as crabs and birds that prevent the eggs from reaching their 60-day incubation period, Boussamba said. <\/p>\n
“The chances of survival are tiny,” he said. <\/p>\n
– Muscle up – <\/p>\n
In Libreville, every morning around 7:00 am, volunteers from the Project Turtles Tahiti Gabon association crisscross the beach and check the nests in the hatchery. <\/p>\n
After one has hatched, the baby turtles have to be moved so they can reach the sea — but they are never put straight into the water. <\/p>\n
“They need to build up their muscles so they can swim in the ocean,” volunteer Clemence said. <\/p>\n
Four species of turtles — green, olive ridley, hawksbill and leatherback — come to nest along Gabon’s 900 kilometers (560 miles) of coastline from October to April. <\/p>\n
It has the highest nesting density on the African continent, according to the US-based NGO Wildlife Conservation Society. <\/p>\n
Gabon is the world’s leading nesting site for the leatherback turtle, the largest of the species and listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). <\/p>\n
In addition to predators, sea turtles are also threatened by human activities, from plastic pollution to industrial fishing and poachers. <\/p>\n
By watching over the eggs, the rangers in Pongara help ensure “the survival of this species”, Edouard Moussavou, Pongara park’s deputy director, said. <\/p>\n
– Unpaid wages – <\/p>\n
Since 2013, Gabon’s conservation efforts had received funding from the United States, notably through the US Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency responsible for biodiversity. <\/p>\n
“If there are turtles, it means our ecosystem is sound and healthy,” Boussamba said. <\/p>\n
But since the suspension of grants by the administration of US President Donald Trump, “turtle monitoring activities have stopped or slowed down drastically”, Moussavou said. <\/p>\n
“There will be fewer staff, less data, and that really creates difficulties for us,” he said. <\/p>\n
Additionally, there have been delays in paying the staff of the National Agency for National Parks (ANPN), which manages the country’s 13 parks, according to Sosthene Ndong Engonga, secretary-general of the National Union of Gabonese Ecoguards. <\/p>\n
The around 580 eco-rangers regularly go unpaid. <\/p>\n
“Even when there is money, we have to make a big fuss to get our salaries,” he said, adding he battled with the treasury last month for back pay. <\/p>\n
The eco-rangers, who are crucial for the conservation of Gabon’s biodiversity, face having “to give everything up,” Engonga warned. “We have expenses we can no longer cover,” he said. <\/p>\n
On Pongara beach, 40-year-old Alain Banguiya carries out night patrols, hoping to see a leatherback turtle emerge from the water to lay her eggs in the sand. <\/p>\n
An eco-ranger since 2015, he has not been paid for two months but says that giving up is out of the question. <\/p>\n
“We have a duty to fight to the end, to keep our spirits up,” he said. “Despite the obstacles, we stay the course: conservation.” <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n